TO LAURENTIUS MASSAM

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MAN

SECRETARY TO THE MOST SERENE SENATE OF VENICE.

Fabritius Raspanus, Doctor of Surgery, sends greetings.

A decorative initial 'S' features two figures, possibly scholars or physicians, in a classical setting with architectural elements.

TWO years ago, when FABIUS PAULINUS was interpreting the aphorisms of Hippocrates in Greek, during the vacation time when he was free from public lectures, he explained the medical art of Galen to his students of medicine at home, in such a way that he reduced the whole of it into three tables. These were then published together with Argentier's commentaries on the art itself by Nicolaus Picolhomineus, my Pirithous (this shall serve for that "Theseus" of his, by which he calls me there). Last year, at the same time, when our domestic meetings were open to us as was his custom, we arranged with him that he should demonstrate something to us from the Arabic sources. And so, he declared the art of HUMAIN Hunayn ibn Ishaq, i.e., Ioannitius, a writer not of the lowest order among the Arabs, with the same method and rationale. Antiquity seems to have held this little book in such high regard that it judged it to correspond among the Arabs to the Galenic art among the Greeks, and the most learned men did not disdain to lecture on it publicly in the academies, as the most brilliant commentaries on it by THADDEUS OF FLORENCE, a most celebrated physician, and others demonstrate. Therefore, when the medical works of AVICENNA, the Prince of Arab physicians, were being published—who seems to have held this man in such high regard that he not only cites him as a physician of great name but also seems to have followed this very method of his in the books of the Canon—we obtained from him that he would allow these tables, indeed composed by Paulinus himself but collected and transcribed by me, to be published for the benefit of students. He did this all the more willingly because I said they would appear in your name, whose judgment in medical matters he holds in such high regard that he thinks it should be conferred upon no one else, or even preferred. He showed this easily when, impelled by your authority and encouragements, he applied his mind to medicine. Whatever benefit will proceed to students from his industry in this matter, which we augur will not be mediocre, all of it will be owed to you. You, however, so that you may remain consistent with yourself and your judgment, by which hands you impelled him to this art, you will also be obliged to take care that it be placed in that same position, or rather you yourself should place it so that, from a greater vantage point, as it were, it may teach how sharp and certain your judgment is in discerning the talents of men. Accept, therefore, most illustrious man, this small pledge of the respect of both of us for you, and love and protect both the teacher, I say, and the disciple, who are most studious of you, as you are wont to do. And if perhaps you miss anything in these, such as the purity of the Latin language and the elegance of words, which seemed to be expected from Paulinus, know that this was done on purpose, so that the terms of the writer and the art, already worn by use, would not be changed, and consider that these tables were not written with the intention that they should be published, but that they should provide only domestic use of medical doctrine for us. Farewell.